This week, the leaders of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador are gathering in Miami with Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin for a “Conference on Prosperity and Security in Central America.” The conference, co-hosted by the United States and Mexico, seeks to revamp strategies to stem the tide of mass migration from Central America’s Northern Triangle nations by addressing the root causes of poverty and insecurity.

The meeting comes amid fraught circumstances. Trump’s proposed 2018 budget threatens to slash US development aid to the Northern Triangle while doubling down on security and pro-investment policies that have already wrought significant damages in the region.

In a Spanish-language statement signed by over fifty civil society organizations and coalitions from across Mexico, Central America, and the United States last month, groups warn that “everything suggests that the central point of this Conference is to make substantial modifications to the Alliance for Prosperity Plan for the Central American Northern Triangle, reformulating it to promote greater private investment from the United States, intensify official arms and military equipment trade and extend the Southern Command Task Forces into Guatemala and venturing into Mexico.”